Jeanette's fiance, Michael, is detained on Rikers Island.

He's serving time because he failed to check in with his officer, violating his parole for drug possession.

Now Michael and hundreds like him are at the center of a public health crisis.

Experts have been warning about for weeks to months old to this city.

It's not worth somebody's life there.

You given people a life sentence leaving them there, and it made, Who tested positive for Cove in 19 died yesterday at Bellevue Hospital.

Rikers is one of the largest correctional facilities in the world.

Right now, the infection rate there is seven times that of New York City.

Is our prison system equipped to handle an outbreak when the Corona virus seep into the jails?

Public officials, public advocates all rushed to address the situation.

We will continue to reduce our jail population.

We're releasing people who are are in jail violated the When the virus was first identified in New York, there are 5400 inmates and city jails to combat the spread of the virus.

The Board of Corrections recommended the release of 2000 inmates.

Parole violators, people over 50 those medically at risk and inmates serving short sentences.

Two weeks later, government officials have released just half prisons.

Jails are acting as incubators for the virus.

Think about the jails as the world's worst cruise ship.

If we get a real situation here and this thing starts to spread, it's gonna spread like wildfire, and New York is gonna have a problem on their hands.

Thousands of employees travel through the city's jails everyday, forming a human lifeline to the city.

Inmates also come and go, so it's particularly urgent to get this under control because it's not just about who's in the jails right now.

It's really about the city.

This is Kenneth Alberton.

He was being held on Rikers, says Covert, 19 spread through the city.

It's scary in there.

That's what I would tell you when I was in there.

You had guys making their own mass with the shirts.

I don't want to breathe in the air with the same people in the door with him.

Kenneth was on parole after serving time for second degree manslaughter when he was 18.

I was brought to Rikers out in on February 5th for curfew violation for me reading a paper and watching the news, and I'm seeing that they're saying like no more than 10 to a group.

But you have 50 guys that's sleeping areas impossible to tell us the practice social distance in there when there's be stacked on top of each other.

After someone in his dorm tested positive, Kenneth says he was quarantined.

But less than 24 hours later, he was released.

He was given a Metro card but no guidance about how to deal with the potential spread of Kobe, 19.

They wouldn't test me on my way out.

Then I would have felt like, OK took the proper steps from my left, the pen to come home.

They told us nothing about how is your hand situation?

Even though nobody told me nothing, I felt I should quarantine myself.

Not much has been considered in terms of what happens to inmates after their release, and once they're back in the communities and in their homes.

When we asked about the pace of releases.

The mayor's office agreed it was slow but said they don't have full control of the process.

States Department of Corrections said it's working as quickly as possible.

My fiance, who's on Rikers?

We had our son in September, and about two weeks after that he found out that he had a warrant for his arrest.

Kim.

This is a personally nonviolent charges like a real healthcare disaster.

The parolees is like the easiest thing to do.

They have great, right?

Yeah, they said about 500 or 700 for release.

I just have read it last night.

Yes, that he signed off on it.

The outbreak It City jails doesn't just pose a threat to inmates.

On March 27th Quincy Simpson became the first New York City corrections officer to die from covert 19 correction offices every day, despite harm to themselves and their family are rolling on this island to do this job Officer who's a median criticizes the city's response, though he's arguing for improving jail conditions, not releasing inmates.

That's not the answer to solving this problem.

They haven't served their time, and they serve the time they wouldn't be on parole.

But his opposition is in the minority.

While the overall population at Rikers has decreased, there's an unusual consensus from public defenders, prosecutors and corrections officials that the releases aren't happening quickly enough.

We need to reframe our thinking around public safety right now to accommodate the fact that public safety includes trying to prevent viral spread.

My brother, who's the New York City school teacher, contracted the Corona virus.

You okay?

Oh, I love you.

Oh, you scared?

What's the matter?

Oh, God.

Don't get into your head.

That is gonna be true.

You're gonna beat this.

Okay?

Yeah.

Good.

Okay.

I love you.

Oh, okay.

I'll call you in a little while.

All right?

Okay.

As a teacher, he had a lot of precautions and thought he was following everything he was supposed to be doing in.

He contracted the Corona virus going into the school.

This is why I'm so adamant about fighting for Michael to your home.

The person standing right next to you can have it.

You wouldn't even know it.

Across city jails, hundreds of inmates and corrections workers have tested positive, and half of all inmates are now under Quarantine Cove in 19 and the pandemic has exposed pretty rapidly, sort of all of the week's places in our social safety nets.

And it is no surprise that one of those is the ways that jails put people at risk.

You have one minute left.

You put a guy, everybody, because Carrie E.

I loathe this is ridiculously scary.